Gis in Bosnia Welcome Santa, Hot Meal Christmas without All the Trimmings

Gis in Bosnia Welcome Santa, Hot Meal Christmas without All the Trimmings

Article excerpt

SANTA GOT FRISKED on Christmas Eve.

A Bosnian Santa Claus, accompanied by a half-dozen musicians in
a rickety horse-drawn cart, paid a surprise visit Sunday to the
Tuzla air base, temporary home to 1,063 American troops assigned to
enforce a U.S.-led peace pact.

"I want to welcome you to the Tuzla," the old man crowed as
troops at the gate swept him with a metal-detecting wand.

One of them realized what he had done.

"I can't believe I just searched Santa Claus for weapons," he
said.

In addition to Santa, the U.S. troops were to celebrate
Christmas with a traditional turkey dinner, thanks to a kitchen
crew that stayed up all night cooking.

"It's going to be a real morale booster," said Staff Sgt.
Anthony Maiore of Buffalo, N.Y. "It's the first hot meal they've
had in seven days."

Sixteen turkeys were flown in from Germany, supplemented by
pre-sliced army rations of the bird, Maiore said.

The Americans pulled together Christmas dinner and religious
services after they began arriving in Bosnia last week. Other than
those events, today will be a regular workday for the troops.

But there was one much-appreciated present: the balmy,
springlike weather that melted Tuzla's snow and ice. It was 64
degrees at noon Sunday.

Maj. Lee Thompson, an Air Force chaplain serving in Tuzla, said
this Christmas should be an especially meaningful one for the
soldiers because there will be none of the commercialism and hype
that he said often cloud the meaning of the day.

"With all those external things stripped away, hopefully we can
recognize the true meaning of Christmas," he said. "When you don't
have the shopping and all the commercialism, it boils down to,
`What does it mean inside you,' and what Christmas is really
intended to be."

Maj. Stephen Booth, a Roman Catholic chaplain, celebrated Mass
on Sunday for soldiers at their artillery posts, standing before
three howitzers and using the hood of a Humvee as an altar.

"Yes, you miss your loved ones, but today Bosnia is not the
worst place to be, but the best place to be," Booth said. …